Real Estate Market Shift – What Should I do as an Agent? 

As we move out of the pandemic, the once-hot real estate market is beginning to cool down and shift. With higher mortgage rates, increased inventory and an uptick in anxious sellers giving the green light for price reductions, real estate agents all around the country are left wondering what they can do to stay profitable during the current 2022 market shift. Today, we’re going over what you can do as a real estate agent to stay ahead of the curve and get a hold of the real estate market shift. 

Mortgage Rates and the 2022 Real Estate Market Shift

It’s no secret that the Fed raised interest rates earlier this year. This impacts a range of industries but especially the real estate market. Since January, interest rates on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage are up from 3.22 to 5.81 percent, pricing many hopeful homebuyers out of the market and drastically impacting the demand for homes. 

As a real estate agent, you never want to hear demand is dropping while mortgage rates are increasing. Although these two tend to go hand-in-hand, this dwindling of the market is never good news for real estate agents. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to mitigate any impacts the 2022 market shift may have on your bottom line.   

What Can Realtors do to Keep Up With The 2022 Market Shift?

There’s not much you can do as a real estate agent to combat surging mortgage rates. But, you do have plenty of control over your own revenue. Sprucing up your existing marketing strategy and fine-tuning your selling techniques are both excellent ways to keep your income steady during these volatile times. 

But, what exactly does this involve for realtors? 

Real estate agents looking to combat the 2022 real estate market shift can start by focusing their strategy on the following areas:  

1. Prospecting 

2. Role Playing 

3. Honing Your Listing Presentation Skills

4. Examining Your Profit and Loss (P&L) Sheet

5. Rededicating Yourself to Face-to-Face or In-Person Client Relations

Real Estate Prospecting

Your success as a real estate agent depends in large part on your prospecting skills and techniques. To combat the latest market shift and gain some traction going into the second half of the year, it’s important to get back to the basics with your prospecting. This includes but certainly isn’t limited to: 

• Reaching out to past and present clients to obtain and nurture leads
• Revamping your prospecting letter to make it more personable and unique
• Ensuring your website is up-to-date with forms, listings and other features working as intended
• Attending local events, workshops and community gatherings to introduce yourself while meeting new and potential clients

If you’re an agent struggling to gain some traction and get a hold of the real estate market shift, these are some great ways to get the ball rolling again and generate some new leads. Prospecting is all about making your presence known in the communities you serve. Don’t be afraid to get out there and mingle wherever homeowners gather – just be sure to carry business cards on you at all times. 

Your willingness to be social or step outside of your comfort zone by attending local gatherings goes a long way with people and they’ll remember you when it comes time to buy or sell a home.     

Role-Playing as a Real Estate Agent

As a real estate agent, role-playing is a great way to stay sharp and hone your conversation skills while trying out new techniques. Conduct regular training with other agents using role-playing to simulate interactions and conversations with buyers and sellers. You can find new role-playing scripts posted online and even try your hand at developing your own. 

Get together with a few colleagues and see if you can come up with some role-playing scripts that address some of the most frequently heard objections from conversations with leads in the area. Try honing in on the trends you’re seeing in conversations with homebuyers and sellers over recent months. Then take turns practicing your responses.   

Ideally, you want to role play for a couple of minutes every day or at least a few times per week. This not only keeps you sharp, but it drills your own message to potential clients in your head. It’s also important to switch up partners and keep in mind that this exercise is designed to challenge one another. Don’t be afraid to poke holes in your partner’s sales pitch by offering as many objections as possible.

Honing Your Presentation Skills as a Real Estate Agent

As a real estate agent, one of the best ways to combat a market shift is by nailing your presentations with confidence and professionalism. Your listing presentations need to set you apart from other agents and turn home sellers into clients dying to hire you as their agent. Real estate listing presentations are all about being confident and trusting your public speaking skills. 

The only way to get better at public speaking is to practice, practice and practice some more. Script, edit and rehearse your presentations over and over again until you feel ultra-confident delivering your pitch. A great way to start practicing is by rehearsing in front of a mirror or recording yourself using your smartphone. Playback your recordings to detect any gaps or awkward pauses and identify the trouble spots where you regularly fumble your words or use clunky phrases. 

Other steps you can take to nail down your real estate listing presentations beyond simply practicing your public speaking skills involve learning the latest technology for real estate agents. Familiarizing yourself with the presentation software you’re using such as Google Slides or Prezi is a great way to spruce up your listing presentations and turn them into powerful lead converting tools. 

It’s important to use your slide presentations as a visual aid and not just a word-by-word account or overview of what you’re saying. Having your visual aids down pat will not only keep you on track as you present your listings but will also ensure listeners are staying engaged throughout your presentations. 

Be sure to include things such as an updated market analysis while keeping your branding on point throughout each of the individual presentation slides. Maintain your brand’s color schemes and include your logo or branding image across the various slides of your presentations. This boosts your credibility and shows your audience you possess professionalism and dedication to the details, converting audiences from leads to clients.   

Reexamining Your Profit and Loss (P&L) Sheet 

During a market shift, it’s important to remain calm and not make any hasty decisions regarding your day-to-day operations, but it’s equally important to examine your profit and loss (P&L) sheet. You’ll need to reduce costs or expenses wherever possible. It’s time to trim the fat, so to speak, and the only way to do that safely is to take a long hard look at your P&L sheet. 

For example, you may be able to cut costs on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and save money harnessing the power of organic search results and local Google My Business listings for your agency’s website. This can save hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of dollars in online lead generation alone. It’s also a great way to enhance your local online visibility and boost the credibility of your real estate services.  

Next, you want to cut any other unnecessary spending and expenses. Many times, this starts with auditing your monthly expenses to determine where you can cut down on spending. For example, you might be able to cut out two or three subscription services you don’t rely on as much, reduce the number of pricey lunch caterings or identify another spending habit that doesn’t add real value to your bottom line. Although many of these might sound like small expenditures, they quickly add up on your P&L sheet. 

Rededicating Yourself to In-Person Client Relations

One of the simplest ways most real estate agents can fight back against shifts in the market involves a rededication to in-person client relations. This involves a combination of networking and marketing to give yourself and your services some exposure as well as generate some buzz for your real estate services. Classic examples of in-person relations include: 

• Holding open house events focused on closing deals and networking with other potential clients
• Knocking on doors in the community to introduce yourself and update homeowners or stir interest in the current market
• Attending local events such as home improvement-oriented trade shows to network with potential sellers and buyers

It’s all about getting creative with your networking and client relations strategies. You’ll want to meet your customers where they’re at, which means getting out in the communities you serve to gain exposure and market your services as a realtor. 

A Summary of Ways to Combat the 2022 Market Shift  

As a realtor, there is a range of different tools and techniques at your disposal to help you withstand anything the market has to throw at you, including a market shift. Many times, though, it all starts with getting back to the basics as a realtor. This involves fine-tuning your prospecting tools, nurturing leads and trimming unnecessary expenses from your P&L sheet. 

We’ve outlined some of the initial steps you can take to get back to basics with your marketing and selling techniques, but feel free to take these in the creative direction of your choosing. Finding what works best for you as a realtor to sell homes is ultimately your best tool to combat the 2022 market shift.    

Check Out The Process Podcast to Discover More Tips for Staying On Top of the Real Estate Market Shift

Professional realtors know the importance of staying up on the latest trends in the world of real estate. What’s equally important is keeping up with the latest techniques and marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition. 

The Process Podcast features our own Preston Guyton and Travis McClure as they dig into all topics of real estate and offer their professional insights designed to help you enjoy a better, more lucrative career as a realtor. Be sure to check out all episodes of The Process Podcast and stay tuned for new episodes dropping soon.